NuBo – short for New Bohemia Brewing opened in March 2015 in Santa Cruz. Dan Satterthwaite was the brewer at the Gordon Biersch brewpub in downtown San Jose. He did a great job with the GB lagers. I’m looking forward to making a trip to Santa Cruz to check out this new brewpub.

An Oregon company, Drink Tanks, is currently running a Kickstarter campaign to fun development of their new 128oz “Juggernaut” stainless steel growler, and I plan to back it! They have already passed their fundraising goal so it’s only a matter of whether you want to get a growler at the discounted Kickstarter price.

Optional designs for the 128oz Juggernaut growler

I first found out about Drink Tanks when a coworker backed the 64oz version and started bring homebrew to share at work. The original Drink Tank used a small CO2 injector that would pressurize the vessel when you push the injector onto a valve. This worked but was hard to get a consistent pressure out of. The new version has a pretty cool regulator that allows you to dial in your desired pressure, up to 40PSI, which means you can use it to force-carbonate beer. No longer will I have to dump that last half gallon from the fermenter that just won’t fit in the corny keg!

“Kegulator” CO2 regulator and dispensing system

The prices via the Kickstarter are pretty good. I plan to get the package with a 64oz vessel, a 128oz vessel, plus the kegulator and two standard caps, all for $169. I also trust the company to follow through because they delivered on their last kickstarter. The fundraising campaign ends on April 9th, so if you’re in the market for a new growler, maybe for bringing PROPERLY carbonated beer to meetings, now is a good time to get one. Looking at you, Dan 😉

A new tap room has setup shop in Downtown San Jose with a clean, modern austere interior. ISO Beers opens with over 30 taps along the stainless wall of minimalist tap handles. Bare light bulb filaments are protected by wire baskets overhead. There is an outdoor patio that is currently sparsely furnished, but looks to be a great place to enjoy a glass of the many beers on tap.

There is also a wall of refrigerators with many more beers in bottles in the back.

You can bring food into ISO Beers – we walked over and brought back Ike’s Sandwiches then ordered a pint.
The full tap list is at ISO Beer Menu, updated regularly. This is a solid new tap room with a great selection of taps in Downtown San Jose! Can’t wait for the patio to be fully filled out and sunny days to enjoy the view.